Seven large South Korean securities companies, including Samsung Securities, have applied for government approval to create a new digital asset exchange according to South Korean publication Newspim. The companies are looking to open the exchange in the first half of 2023. 

Digital asset investment products experienced $9m in outflows in the seven days leading up to Aug. 19, according to a CoinShares report. During this period, trading volume also dropped to below $1bn, the second lowest level recorded this year. 

Pavel Durov, the CEO of messaging service Telegram, has proposed that the platform bring its usernames and channel links to market as NFTs in a Monday post to his personal channel. Durov says that reserved Telegram addresses could be auctioned as digital assets on the blockchain.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• South Korean Financial Heavyweights To Create Digital Asset Exchange
• Crypto Funds Experience Minor Outflows: CoinShares Report
• Telegram CEO Proposes Auctioning Usernames, Links As NFTs

South Korean Financial Heavyweights To Create Digital Asset Exchange

Seven large South Korean securities companies, including Samsung Securities, have applied for government approval to create a new digital asset exchange according to South Korean publication Newspim. The companies are looking to open the exchange in the first half of 2023. 

As reported by local coverage, Samsung Securities had been examining the different ways to develop and operate a token trading platform and was planning to proceed with the project last year; however, it was unable to recruit the required personnel. 

Samsung Securities is not alone in this pursuit, with Mirae Asset Consulting, an affiliate of Mirae Asset Securities, South Korea’s largest investment banking and stock brokerage by market cap, also hiring personnel for cryptocurrency and nonfungible token (NFT) development. NH Investment & Securities, KB Securities, and Shinhan Financial Investment were also referenced in the report.

Earlier this month, the South Korean Financial Intelligence Unit found that 16 foreign-based crypto exchanges were operating in South Korea without proper registration, and it has taken a series of actions against these exchanges.

Crypto Funds Experience Minor Outflows: CoinShares Report

Digital asset investment products experienced $9m in outflows in the seven days leading up to Aug. 19, according to a CoinShares report. During this period, trading volume also dropped to below $1bn, the second lowest level recorded this year. 

This marked the third straight week of outflows for Bitcoin (BTC) investment products, totalling $15m. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation has reacted sharply -- declining 10% on Aug.19 -- to the release on Aug. 17 of last month’s meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), which hinted at further interest rate hikes.

Ether (ETH) funds, however, experienced inflows of $2.9m during this period, as market participants continue to speculate on the narratives surrounding the Ethereum merge, which will mark the network’s switch from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake. 

There were mixed movements surrounding altcoin funds, with $1.4m of outflows for Solana (SOL) based products, whilst both Cardano (ADA) and Ripple (XRP) experienced inflows.

Telegram CEO Proposes Auctioning Usernames, Links As NFTs

Pavel Durov, the CEO of messaging service Telegram, has proposed -- in a Monday post to his personal channel -- that the platform bring reserved usernames and channel links to market as NFTs. Durov says that reserved Telegram addresses could be auctioned as digital assets on the blockchain.

“This would create a new platform where username holders could transfer them to interested parties in protected deals – with ownership secured on the blockchain via NFT-like smart contracts,” he explained.

Durov continued by sharing that he was inspired by The Open Network’s (TON) recent sale of over 2,000 .ton domain names. The sale totalled 2,392,002 Toncoin (TON), each of which trades for $1.31 at writing time, netting approximately $3 million.

"If TON has been able to achieve these results, imagine how successful Telegram with its 700 million users could be if we put reserved @ usernames, group and channel links for auction,” argued the CEO. “In addition to millions of catchy t.me addresses like @storm or @royal, all four-letter usernames could be made available for sale (@bank, @club, @game, @gift, etc.)."

Chart of the Week: No. of Daily Transactions, Sep 21 - July 22

The Ethereum merge is one of the most exciting narratives in the digital asset space right now - fuelled further by the announcement that it is scheduled for completion on September 15th. Once the merge is completed, the Ethereum network will have transitioned from a proof-of-stake consensus to proof-of-work. 

In this week's Chart of the Week, we examined the open interest for BTC/USDT and ETH/USDT on Binance using our CryptoCompare API v2. As shown below, the open interest data indicates a rise in speculative activity surrounding Ethereum and the merge narrative.

The aggregated open interest for the ETH/USDT pair reached its yearly high of $2.26bn on August 13. The ratio between the open interest for the BTC and ETH pairs currently stands at 56.4%, compared to a high of 74.6% in June.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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